Chainlink’s Interoperability Protocol, Connecting Blockchains to ‘Bank Chains,’ Goes Live

Data provider Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), designed to help build cross-chain applications and services, is now live for early access users on the Avalanche, Ethereum, Optimism and Polygon blockchains.

CCIP was being tested by at least 25 partners that are now beginning to move to the mainnet; decentralized finance protocol Aave and decentralized liquidity platform Synthetix are among the early adopters. According to a blog post Monday from the Chainlink team, leading decentralized finance protocols will be able to adopt CCIP.

The interoperability protocol has been a key component behind the protocol’s partnership with SWIFT, a closed network used by banks to make international money transfers.

In June, Chainlink and Swift announced that they would be testing connecting dozens of financial institutions to blockchain networks. Swift will be using CCIP to connect with different blockchains. The next phase of the collaboration will be a pilot phase, Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov said in an interview with CoinDesk.

The project “could connect all of the blockchains and all of the bank chains,” Nazarov said.

On Thursday, CCIP will become available to all developers across five testnets: Arbitrum Goerli, Avalanche Fuji, Ethereum Sepolia, Optimism Goerli and Polygon Mumbai.

The early access phase will kickstart the protocol’s transition to mainnet general availability where the protocol is live and available to all.